Why cultural appropriation is welcome

This melting pot of thought, creativity and ingenuity benefits us all; to censor the trend is as self-defeating as it is impossible

If you’re a fan of yoga but can’t lay claim to Indian heritage, you should roll up your mat and slink away in shame. That, at least, is the takeaway from the latest assault by the cultural-appropriation movement, for which, to quote the Guardian newspaper, “Yoga’s appropriation by the white wellness industry is a 21st century form of colonialism.”

The Cambridge Dictionary defines cultural appropriation as “the act of taking or using things from a culture that is not your own, especially without showing that you understand or respect this culture”.

Cultural appropriation can be portrayed as a bad thing by those with an axe to grind over colonialism, but condemning it is not a zero-sum game. If, by some curious application of a mysterious force, India was able to oblige the rest of the world to give up yoga, who would win?

Ideas travel, cultures merge, nations trade, people migrate, civilisations evolve. Go back far enough and everything in the world is the product of cultural appropriation, from pizza, curry, fondue and fish and chips, to architecture, agriculture, music and art. Skirts, music, dance steps, make-up, computers, tattoos, electricity, hot dogs, democracy, the internal combustion engine, religion, surfing — writing, even. It all began somewhere, and all of it is now everywhere.

This melting pot of human thought, creativity, and ingenuity benefits us all, and to attempt to retain any element for one group’s exclusive use — or, on the flip side, to ban anything that hasn’t originated from within one’s own community — is as self-defeating as it is impossible.

As an example of how complex this subject is, Ngozi Fulani, the Black British woman who recently accused a member of Britain’s royal household of racism for asking her where she was “really from”, was subsequently accused herself — by other Black Britons — of having appropriated African culture. Despite being born in the UK of Caribbean heritage, Fulani had opted to change her name from Marlene Headley and adopt African dress.

But why shouldn’t she? One has a choice: To take offence at Fulani’s “appropriation”, or to welcome it as a positive example of cultural exchange.

Qatar World Cup bridged cultures

At the Qatar World Cup. Western football fans who wore the ghotra were accused in some quarters of cultural appropriation, but not, interestingly, by the Qataris themselves, who seemed rather to like the idea.

And there was Lionel Messi, draped by the Emir of Qatar in the bisht. Setting aside the knee-jerk outbursts of racism across several Western media outlets, this was a dramatic example of cultural exchange in action.

In our globalised modern world, it’s far more appropriate to embrace appropriation for what it really is: Cultural exchange. As the very lifeblood of civilisation, cultural appropriation should be encouraged and celebrated, not censored. Without it, everyone would still be living in the Stone Age.